End the Impunity of Transnational Corporations Now!

Call to International Action For the Economic, Political, Cultural and Environmental Sovereignty of Our Peoples

24 June 2013

Article

The time has come to unite the hundreds of struggles, campaigns, networks, movements and organizations that are combating the different ways transnational corporations are appropriating our destinies, natural heritage and rights in every corner of the planet.

Neoliberal globalization has opened the doors for the savage exploitation of the world by the big economic powers. They have gradually taken over our lives and the planet by creating a blanket of impunity through the dismantling and systematic violation of laws and the signing of international trade and investment agreements, which award investors more rights than citizens. As a result, peoples’ rights have been systematically violated, the Earth and its resources destroyed, pillaged and contaminated, and resistance criminalized, while corporations continue committing economic and ecological crimes with total impunity. Driven by their imperative of maximizing profit, TNCs seek to pit workers from different regions against one another in what is a race to the bottom for the world’s working people.

The governance and policies of the multilateral institutions (IMF, WB, and the WTO) have long served corporate interests, while the institutions of the UN and the EU have been increasingly captured by TNCs. This is reflected in the policies shaped to satisfy the interests of capital and in these institutions’ systematic refusal to impose limits on corporations.

In most countries, governments are at the service of corporate interests and against us, the majority of peoples. Setting aside democratic principles, they usurp institutions and, with the complicity of national elites, succeed in altering laws and policies that allow them to continue plundering the wealth of nations and maintain their predatory relation to nature. In the face of mounting criticism of their operations, TNCs’ have designed tools like Corporate Social Responsibility to clean up their image, while allowing them to continue to increase their profits. Furthermore, they control major media agencies, which play a key role in ensuring the continuity of corporate hegemony.

Acting with brutality in the rich countries from which they originate, but especially in countries of the Global South - and increasingly in “emerging” countries like Brazil, India, China and Russia - major corporations are appropriating more and more of our wealth and rights. Their growing economic monopoly, political power and control over the justice system destroy our right to a decent life and dominate our peoples’ and nations’ cultural habits and consumption patterns.

Transnationals have commodified life and continue to seize our territories, forests and water and transform social and human relations. Health and education, for example, are now considered privileges of those who have money, and are no longer seen as the rights of all people. With the crisis in the U.S. and various European countries, the banks have expropriated thousands of people’s houses. In Europe, they have imposed austerity measures, which are a replica of the structural adjustment programs implemented years ago in countries in the South to deal with the so-called “external debt”. Today, we are seeing unprecedented attacks on public services, labour rights and social programs, while governments use public funds to save the market’s excesses and the financial institutions.

Transnational corporations operate globally, moving from one country to another, while applying the same recipe to generate profit at any cost. It is we, the 99%, who bear the costs. Yet, resistance is growing throughout the world. Every day, there are more communities, movements and peoples struggling against transnationals - often confronting specific companies or sectors and that have won important victories. Even so, we have not succeeded in halting the advance of corporations, as when defeated in one place, they adjust their strategies and move to another, where they confront any obstacle that rises on their path.

Therefore, to confront corporate power and the system that protects and benefits TNCs, it is urgent and necessary to give a systematic response. We must unite our experiences and our struggles, learn collectively from our victories and our failures and share our analysis and strategies for putting an end to the impunity of transnationals. The concrete struggles of our communities against a transnational corporation could be even more victorious if we are able to unite them with the efforts of other people in other countries, regions or continents. Sharing our experience in developing ways of life that are distinct from the culture of transnational production imposed by capitalism, that now wants to disguise itself as “green”, is fundamental for building an alternative society in which we, the people, are the protagonists. We are committed to reclaiming sovereignty over the commons, over natural resources, territories and public services and strengthening our struggles for food sovereignty and for ecological and environmental justice.

We, the undersigned, hereby invite you to join us in collectively building this process of mobilization towards a global campaign against the power of corporations and their crimes against humanity. Dismantling the transnationals’ system of power demands coordinated action at the global level: engaging in struggles in various spheres, combining mobilizations on the streets and in territories with popular education and actions in parliaments, media and international forums and organisations. By creating a powerful movement of solidarity and action against TNCs, their apologists and promoters, we will begin to build a world free from corporate power and greed.

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The Transnational Institute (TNI) is an international research and advocacy institute committed to building a just, democratic and sustainable planet. For more than 40 years, TNI has served as a unique nexus between social movements, engaged scholars and policy makers.